Joel McHale has a warning for fans eager to see the upcoming Community installment penned by his Oscar-winning co-star Jim Rash: “It was pretty bad.”

The Soup host did, however, say this in jest while sitting directly next to Rash, who actually echoed his friend’s silly sentiments. “It’s true,” joked the man behind the screenplay for The Descendants (which took home the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar in 2012), adding: “I just wrote words on a napkin and said, ‘Let’s see what happens!'”

Truth be told, the episode (the 10th of the NBC sitcom’s fourth season) sounds pretty must-see. “It mainly centers on Troy and Abed, and is a play on some body-switching worlds,” Rash shared during a recent set visit. “It’s very Greendale in the sense that it’s warped, but there’s a lot of heart [and brings] some resolution to key things that play out over the season.”

If the actor/writer’s Community offering sounds vaguely familiar, it’s likely because his vision was loosely influenced by Freaky Friday — though, he noted, the classic “Jodie Foster one,” not the more recent Lindsay Lohan remake.

Another aspect of scriptwriting is ultimately watching the cast — or in this case Rash’s own co-stars — perform his work. “It definitely made the table read a bit more challenging,” he recalled with a laugh. “I obviously wrote stuff for myself [to read], too, but to sit there and hear it all out loud, [I was] going: ‘Ooh, fix that!’ or, ‘Oh, good!'”

“Honestly,” McHale added, much more seriously this time, “it was great.”

They’re purposely moving it away from college stories, because they’re graduating this year and there won’t be a Greendale next year… though I suppose that Shirley’s sandwich shop might still be there.

this despite the fact that most of the people who were there last year for the best season the show has had are still there. honestly if i showed you the new season episodes and you didnt have the knowledge of what happened behind the scenes you most likely wouldnt see anything different. the way some people go on you would think dan harmon did all the writing by himself for the last 3 years but he barely did any, megan ganz was the real star writer on the show and she is still there turning out the same level of quality she has been since she joined the show.

I agree. I remember when Harmon was there, people complained about certain episodes but decided that with a show that quirky things would be hit and miss. Now if they don’t like an episode, they cannot for cancellation. Many fans turned on the show before seeing the premiere this year.

Season 1 wasn’t perfect and Harmon was there. Harmon wasn’t perfect. He made mistakes. The new writers will make mistakes, but so far I’ve been enjoying this season. It is an awkward year because even if Harmon was there, the format would be different. They’re phasing out Greendale and trying to explore how to go about making the show outside of that box. There are going to be mistakes and adjustments, but the same would be true if Dan Harmon never left.

You totally made up those percentages. Like all good shows you’re going to run into bad episodes. I’m tired of listening to people complaining too, but it doesn’t mean I wish the show was cancelled. More times than not it’s very entertaining (the exception being the Halloween episode… oh man was that horrible).

I remember when fans appreciated the entire writing team and staff of Community, and not just its showrunner.

If you miss Dan Harmon then go watch his upcoming pilot on Fox. If you were a true fan of Community you would appreciate and respect the fact that the writing team and cast are still very much a part of the show, and are doing an excellent job. These last three episodes already have me more interested than I was in season 3.

I don’t get into the whole “true fan” debate because that’s just a minefield of nastiness waiting to happen, but I do agree with your first sentence. The first episode of this season was kinda shaky, but I’ve liked the last two myself, and I’m willing to stick it out and see how the rest of the season goes. I think this could be quite entertaining, I’m really curious to see how the episode pans out (hell, I’m just kind of surprised the show didn’t do this scenario sooner).
It’s only 13 episodes. If it were an entire season stretching from September to May then I might be a little more concerned about the transition, but 13 episodes-well, yeah, it’s going to have some growing pains and feeling things out. I’m willing to let it slide and just enjoy the show while it still lasts.

I have to agree with the last few posters. The style and heart of the show is very much intact. I don’t see a noticeable difference. The Inspector SpaceTime and Halloweens were in my mind, classic eps. 6 Seasons and a movie!!!

I know Comedy Central has an amazing commercial for Community. As for NBC, the last bit of advertising I personally saw was the “Halloween on Valentine’s Day #Valloween” post on facebook, which I imagine would be incredibly off-putting for casual viewers.